Editor's Note Twice as many patients with appendicitis are being treated without surgery compared to 20 years ago; however, nonoperative management is associated with a higher death rate, finds this study presented October 26 at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2017 in San Diego. A total of  477,680…

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Editor's Note Surgeon’s cloth skull caps that expose small amounts of the ears and hair are not inferior to bouffant disposable hats that cover those features, finds this study presented October 25 at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2017 in San Diego and published online October 26 in…

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Editor's Note Most elderly hip fractures occur during warm months, and a greater number happen indoors rather than out, finds this study presented October 23 at the Anesthesiology 2017 annual meeting in Boston. In this analysis of 544 hip fracture patients treated at The Hospital of Central Connecticut from 2013…

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Editor's Note Bariatric surgery patients have a much higher rate of newly persistent postoperative opioid use than general surgery patients, finds this study presented October 23 at the American College of Surgeons 2017 Clinical Congress in San Diego. Of 14,063 bariatric surgery patients in the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collaborative who…

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Editor's Note Adding oral antibiotics to mechanical bowel preparation for left colorectal cancer surgery significantly lowered the rate of surgical site infections (SSIs), but the effect was marginal in right-colon resections, this study finds. For 89 patients having left colorectal resections, the rate of SSIs was 27% with mechanical bowel…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on October 19 issued an updated Safety Alert for implantable cardioverter defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators by St Jude Medical. Because batteries for the devices may fail earlier than expected, St Jude has made available a new battery performance management tool,…

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Editor's Note A new app developed by students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s (UWM’s) App Brewery and a neuropsychologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) monitors critical brain functions during neurosurgical procedures in which patients are awake. The app, called “NeruoMapper,” assists neurosurgeons who are removing tumors by helping…

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Editor's Note Risk assessments of postoperative complications and death in surgically complex patients were not significantly different between internal medicine and general surgery residents in this study. However, both groups overestimated the risks compared with the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (ACS NSQIP) risk adjusted model.…

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Editor's Note Surgical patients who received antibiotic prophylaxis before low-risk procedures did not have an increased risk for postoperative antibiotic-resistant infections, this study finds. Of 22,138 patients included in the analysis, 689 developed an infection within 30 days after surgery. Of these, 550 (80%) had received antibiotic prophylaxis, and 338…

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Editor's Note Acute care surgery (ie, an organized system of trauma, general surgery, and critical care) implementation has occurred unevenly across the US, with rural communities and regions the slowest, this study finds. Of 1,690 hospitals surveyed, 272 had implemented acute care surgery by 2015−an increase from 34 in 2001…

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